HAMILTON: Cup of kindness changed everything New Year’s Day 1972

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December 30, 2011

By Ken Hamilton Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Fri Dec 30, 2011, 03:23 AM EST

Column by Ken Hamilton — I understand why a relative of the Knighton brothers was on a Niagara Falls Facebook page recenlty railing against those who relished the arrest of three of the brothers after the DA issued warrants against them for drug distribution.

Here’s why I understand.

I remember 1995, a banner year for sensational crime coverage, and no place was hotter than Southern California. That was the year that former great Buffalo Bills runningback O.J. Simpson was unsuccessfully prosecuted by the overzealous, stony-eyed, 40-year old deputy district attorney Marcia Clark, for his role in the murder of his wife and his wife’s friend.

It was also the year that Danny Palm, a retired Navy commander, chased down and shot a man many considered to be a neighborhood terrorist.

Both O.J. and Palm’s cases were covered by Court TV. In Palm’s trial, his young, male deputy district attorney, Kelly Hansen, actually cried. According to San Diego Magazine, it wasn’t because the bully died; Kelly cried because Palm had pleaded with Hansen so many times, and for so long, to try to get 48-year-old bully to stop his terrorizing.

While O.J. escaped criminal charges in the murders, Palm did not. He is now out of prison and lives a quiet life in the suburbs of San Diego.

I had no relationship with O.J., other than the color of my skin. For most of the six-months that I spent in the Operations Department aboard the U.S.S. Wiltsie in 1971-72, I had no affection for Palm, the weapons boss. But that all changed on New Year’s Day, 1972.

Palm was decisively a strict and seemingly uncaring officer. It is rumored that when the ship was on the gun line of Vietnam, bombarding the enemies shore batteries and their supply routes, he would crack a smile every time that one of the 5-inch guns fired; apparently in hopes that he had killed someone. His job and his attitude towards it gave him the whispered nickname of “NaPalm.”

Even though I had not seen Palm since the spring of 1972, it came as no surprise to me when I got word that on Nov. 8, 1995 he had chased down and shot John Harper Jr. But what did surprise me was the reason why he did it.

While I cannot support his actions, I do better understand them; and, upon reflection, I better understand his behavior aboard the Wiltsie, too. He obviously felt that his job was to protect and to serve his fellow man, even at risk to his own reputation.

You see, this seeming tyrant of a man, someone whom I tried my best to stay as far away from as possible, was the command duty officer aboard Wiltsie on New Year’s Day, 1972. The war was still on and navy ships, in order not to be caught as they were in Pearl Harbor in 1941, had to be ready to get under way within a few hours. We were supposed to maintain at least a third of our crew onboard. The cooks had prepared a wonderful meal for those who had duty, or otherwise lived aboard the San Diego-based ship.

There should have been about 100 men aboard that evening, but there was not when the very strict Palm entered the crew’s dining room, carrying a cardboard case which he set on the empty edge of a table. The room fell silent.

What Palm did next surprised even his staunchest critics.

Alcohol was not allowed aboard Navy ships; but Palm pulled out and distributed bottles of champaign so that each gathered crewmember could toast in the New Year. In so doing, we sang a round of Auld Lang Synge.

And in so doing, Palm gave me a peep into his personality, that, because of my relationship with him in 1972, such as it was, I think that I better understand this year how he did what he did 23 years after my last seeing him; and 16 years ago, and some 3,000 miles away.

There is more to Palm than what meets the eye, and more than I can write here. Likely, there is more to the Knighton brothers, too. Because of Palm, and my feelings toward him based on a New Year’s toast, I also better understand how family members, who are here with us now, and only a few miles away, right or wrong, are more willing to understand and have affection for those in their own families who do wrong than those of us who have no such relationship.

And, as in Palm’s case, I understand how prosecutors, such as the reluctant and tearful Kelly Hansen, are obligated to set aside their personal feelings about anyone, to protect everyone, under the rule of law.

May we take a cup of kindness now, in hopes that each, and every one of us, have a peaceful and prosperous New Year?

Contact Ken Hamilton at kenhamilton930@aol.com.

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